POWER WINDOWS

Rush followed this album up with Power Windows in 1985. The opening "The Big Money" demonstrates some differences with the sonic qualities of Grade Under Pressure. Geddy's keyboards have more varied tones, and his bass has a much funkier tone than usual. Lifeson's guitar is also mixed lower, much like on Signals.

"Manhattan Project" is one of Rush's better slow songs. The synthesizer tones are rich, the chorus is big and powerful, and Lifeson's clean guitar tones cut through the walls of synthesizer. By the time the song's over, it's no longer slow, but the evolution is a smooth one.

"Territories" is another high-energy piece that reminds me a lot of the best output that Yes did in the 1980s. "Emotion Detector", meanwhile, is structurally similar to "Manhattan Project", and Neil's use of electronic percussion is especially noteworthy.

Power Windows isn't without its weak spots, though. "Marathon" has a terribly cheesy chorus, and the use of a choir only makes it sound more ridiculously overblown. "Middletown Dreams", for all its interesting sequencers, winds up sounding awfully generic. The closing "Mystic Rhythms" similarly fails to make much of an impression. None of these songs were bad?Rush were very good at not writing bad songs?and it's a testament to the band's skills as songwriters that the worst they usually did was a few bland tracks.

Review originally posted here: theeliteextremophile.com/2020/04/27/deep-dive-rush/